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Greetings, and welcome to VIEWING THE CLASSICS. Here you'll find capsule reviews of vintage movies from the early days of cinema through the 1970s, with a special emphasis on sci-fi, horror, and mystery movies. Be sure to check out the Pages links, where you can find a Film Index of all my reviews, links to the reviews organized by cast members, directors, and other contributors, and links to my reviews of the films of talented young director Joshua Kennedy.

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Saturday, January 21, 2017

Crime By Night (1944)

Starring Jane Wyman, Jerome Cowan, Faye Emerson, Charles Lang, Eleanor Parker
Directed by William Clemens(actor & director credits courtesy IMDB.com)A private detective and his helpful secretary try to clear their client of the murder of his ex-father-in-law, and discover a wealth of other suspects during their investigation.

Although the characters have different names, this mystery is very similar to the previous year's Find The Blackmailer, which also starred Cowan as a detective and Emerson as a beautiful suspect, although Jane Wyman fills the role of the secretary that Marjorie Hoshelle played in the earlier film. The first half of the film is well-scripted and compelling, introducing us to well-defined characters, including the less than honest sheriff running for re-election, the daughter of the victim who has secrets to hide, her boyfriend with a nasty disposition who sings at the local hotel, and the agent who represents the singer but used to manage Cowan's client. The latter half however seems to wrap things up a little too quickly, making the murderer's identity all too clear before Cowan springs his trap. Nonetheless, I enjoyed the film and Cowan and Wyman have good chemistry.